It seems like it should be possible to catch errors that you make over and over again with your computer.

Please send your licensing checks for this idea directly to me.

despite google's blithe assurances that i would never need to delete messages from my gmail account, i have in fact, had to do just that. i get a lot of mail. a lot of mail with attachments. for months i've been hovering at just a few bytes away from having an entirely full gmail account. today my problem was solved. w00t!

In about 30 minutes, I made a page that looks it is right out of a scrapbook. A good scrapbook, mind you! I uploaded photos, chose a background, stickers, text, shapes, all without reading a single Help file. People who aren't as heavy into graphic applications as I am might need a little assistance, but it's a fairly intuitive application. It wasn't troublefree, however. I had some trouble signing up for an account, and there are some glitches around the profile editing area. Nonetheless, this takes things to a whole different level if you have photos you want to share in more than a photo gallery way.

You are a very calm and contemplative person. Others are drawn to your peaceful, nurturing nature.

Find out your color at QuizMeme.com!

Mad-houses are large and only too numerous; yet surely it is strange they are not larger, when we think of how many helpless wretches must beat their brains against this hopeless persistency of the orderly outward world, as compared with the storm and the tempest, the riot and confusion within: -- when we remember how many minds must tremble upon the narrow boundary between reason and unreason, mad to-day and sane to-morrow, mad yesterday and sane to-day.

As I stare at people's faces, I realize that many of them believe they're innocent because they haven't yet had the opportunity to snuff out a life. It's hard to believe that most men are more moral or better than me simply on account of some minor twist of fate.

I know this unorthodox approach will concern, even frighten some of you, but frankly, I'm getting pretty desperate. The headaches that have plagued me for years are here in force in the past couple of months, appearing nearly every day and resisting most pain medications. (They do seem susceptible to a combo of pain medication and alcohol, but that's hardly a good coping strategy at 10 in the morning.) In an effort to bring these things back into some kind of control, I'm doing the unthinkable: turning the lights off at midnight and getting up at 8:30. For those of you unfamiliar with the Gardner/Smith schedule, this is a big shift. Travis, horrified, has agreed to live by this schedule for a week so that I can get used to the hours, but makes no promises after that. This has put a real crimp in his usual 4 a.m. work time!

I've been seeing an acupuncturist for more than a year for these headaches, but we haven't managed to really touch them. As well as acupuncture, though, she has me doing a number of other things to try to control the situation. Many of these fall in the category of "detoxing." Frankly, a lot of this seems like so much mumbo-jumbo to me, but I'm pretty much willing to try anything. Here's what I'm supposed to be doing everyday:

• Taking GI Flora at waking and going to bed
  
• Taking a multi-vitamin and vitamin B at breakfast
  
• Taking three magnesium pills a day, with food
  
• Taking three vitamin c pills a day, with food
  
• Not eating cottage cheese, milk, grapes, or tomatoes
  
• Eating more of cruciferous vegetables: cauliflower, kale, bok choy, broccoli, etc. Steamed, preferably.
  
• Using organic meat and vegetables
  
• Eating more soy. (Soy is a food?! Go figure.)
  
• Having 1 tablespoon of ground flax and pumpkin seeds on some days, and ground sesame and sunflower seeds on others
  
• Using castor oil packs every night
  
• Ending my showers by standing in cool/cold water (This one is sooo hard.)
  
• Starting tomorrow, taking various liquids under the tongue three times a day

Needless to say, I'm supposed to be exercising, drinking lots of water, etc.

Can I just say how much fun all of this is? Whoo!

The were fun to knit, even if nervewracking. I only had one skein of the KPPPM and I had wanted to make two socks using the brown only for the toe and heel, but the size of the remaining yarn ball when I finished the first sock was disconcerting, so I ended up with what you see. It remains to be seen if the difference in the two sock textures will be a problem as they wear.

I did as Travis to open it, however, as I pretty much knew it wasn't for me. Pick Up Sticks is a (new?) Canadian online yarn store, and he hasn't been doing any knitting. No gift card or note inside.

So it's a mystery present. I'm looking forward to seeing what it is on Christmas Day, but I do wonder who it's from. If you sent me a gift from Pick Up Sticks, speak up!

Nonetheless, I woke this morning with a fabulous poem in my mind, fully formed. (This may have something to do with staying up till 4:30 reading Lynn Coady's "Mean Boy" a book about poetry and academia.) Here it is:

At night my body makes boogers.
I guess it's not doing anything else.
I don't need them, though.

And here I thought this poetry thing was hard. Huh.